BHOPAL: Contact tracing in Covid Delta plus cases is unlikely to give accurate results as by the time it is confirmed that the patient has contracted the new Corona strain, almost a month has passed. By that time it becomes very difficult to trace all the persons who have come in contact with the patient, who by this time is fully recovered. The authorities thus have to simply satisfy themselves by merely jotting down the names of patientís family members and a few others in the name of contact tracing.
The real picture will only come to the fore when the people, who had come in contact with the patient earlier, get infected and come for the testing.
In case of Covid-19, test results are out within a couple of days, and thus it is much easier to trace the people who have come in contact with the patient. However, in case of the Delta plus infection, the sample results of the patient would arrive after weeks and by the time it is known that the new mutant had infected the patient, he is on his feet fully recovered as almost a month had gone when he contracted the new strain.
Under such circumstances, it becomes very difficult for the health department team to get the accurate number of persons who had come in contact with the infected.
An uphill task for health team to do contact tracing
Contact tracing is just like chasing a wild goose in case of Delta plus patients as the test results are received after many days. So it becomes an uphill task for the health team to do the contact tracing. After such a long period, only family members are available for undergoing testing and thus it is mere a formality to test these family members in the name of contact tracing.
-Dr ID Chaurasia, neurologist Hamidia Hospital
'Simply wastage of resources'
Contact tracing is not possible in the case of Delta plus patients. It is simply wastage of resources of health departments as by the time the test result of a patient comes confirming that he/she has contracted the corona new strain, all the people who had come in contact with the patient weeks back have been moving and mingling with others all this while. And thus by then only family members would be available in the name of contact tracing.
Dr Subroto Mandal, cardiologist
Patient needs to disclose full contact list
Contact tracing itself is a tedious job as it depends on the patient to disclose how many people he had come in touch with. If a patient hides it, it is not possible for the health department to arrive†on an accurate figure. The picture will be cleared when infected persons start coming for testing.
-Dr AK Shrivastava, ex- medical supdt, Hamidia Hospital
